most convenient key type?

[Johan Wevers]

David Shaw wrote:

> The most interoperable key type is the PGP 2.x style v3 RSA keys.

Indeed. Almost all pgp and gnupg versions can deal with those keys.
However, to generate them you need pgp 2.x (try not to use the US
version 2.6.2 that creates 2047 bit instead of 2048 bit keys) or a
patched version of gnupg (like the one on www.nullify.org). Or does
the --expert option in 1.1.91 allow one to create a v3 key?

> This does not make it the best choice however.  v3 RSA keys can't have
> subkeys, so you lose that benefit.

I doubt most people see subkeys as a benefit. I see for my personal use
(mostly encryption, a few times signing is important) no advantage in
having a subkey, except for alowing a larger encryption key while still
being compatible with the DSA limit of 1024 bits.

The design of a "web of trust" is nice, but I don't see it used with the
people I communicate encrypted with. Wether I trust a key is something
I determine by hand, not by programming some complicated ruleset.

-- 
ir. J.C.A. Wevers         //  Physics and science fiction site:
johanw@vulcan.xs4all.nl   //  http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/index.html
PGP/GPG public keys at http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/pgpkeys.html